Continuing Violence

Crime Against Humanity 
Volume I An inquiry into the carnage in Gujarat 
List of Incidents and Evidence 
By Concerned Citizens Tribunal -Gujarat 2002

Incidents of Post-Godhra Violence

Continuing Violence

Even as the Tribunal was finalising its report, violence broke out in Mehsana dis-trict and fear and insecurity was again experienced by small clusters of the Muslimminority. Protection from the police had to be sought and the assailants were againmobs actively led by men who hold positions of power. During the gaurav yatra thatCM Modi insisted on holding on July 12, 2002 despite advise to the contrary, terrifiedMuslims fled back to the then-functioning relief camps, scared of a repeat of thecarnage. Violence and threats of violence have been a constant feature of Gujarateven after the carnage. What is truly shocking is the violence caused by calculatedhate speech that leaders of these groups have been indulging in.

The period between mid-March and mid-May saw continued violence in Ahmedabadand other parts of Gujarat. More and more instances of indiscriminate police firingwere reported, where victims were mainly the Muslim minority. It is imperative thatthe Gujarat police regularly make statistics available to members of the public. Thisis one way there will be accountability.

Phases of Violence

In the first phase of violence, from February 28 to around March 5, systematic,intensive and organised violence was directed against Muslims and their property.This phase was marked by the presence of large roving mobs, armed with swords,raising slogans like Jai Sri Ram and Jai Hanuman, and attacking Muslim houses andshops. Killing and maiming was brutal, burning of the dead left few remains. Sexualviolence was calculatedly used.

The second phase of violence began on March 15, the day that the Shiladaan was heldin Ayodhya. In Ahmedabad and Vadodara, Bharuch, Bhavnagar and Rajkot, processionsand ramdhuns were organised on that day, violating prohibitory orders and leading to freshescalation of violence. From our evidence recorded, in Vadodara, the violence first eruptedin Machchipith, when the shobha yatra turned aggressive and violent, leading to stone throw-ing on both sides. It is significant that areas where residents had actively prevented vio-lence in the first phase (such as Fatehgunj) were targeted in this phase.

Towards the end of April (April 26-around May 5), Ahmedabad and Vadodara,including rural Vadodara, were affected by a third round of violence. From aroundthe third week of April, there were rumours in the city that there would be violenceafter the Gujarat State Board Examinations. These rumours led to the build-up ofconsiderable tension. While the ‘big attack’ that was being anticipated did not hap-pen, the tension that had built up manifested itself in a further round of violence,which began on April 27, in Vadodara. The later phases of violence, though lessintensive than the first phase, were akin to a steady war of attrition.

During this period, in contrast to the first week of violence, Hindus in sensitiveareas were ‘prepared’ for ‘retaliation’ by Muslims (aided, according to reports, by localHindutva organisations, which distributed swords, guptis, etc.). This time, Muslims insome localities attempted to defend themselves, leading, with the prevailing build-upof tension, to street-level confrontations (stone throwing, etc.) in some areas.Evidence recorded by the Tribunal shows, that when Muslims, who had been deniedpolice protection during the most vicious attacks on their lives and property, came outto defend themselves, they were picked up by the police and charged with a range ofoffences, including section 307 (attempt to murder). Over 500 innocent Muslim youth,our evidence shows, still languish in Gujarat’s lock-ups and jails and there have been noattempts by the state, through its public prosecutors, to get them released.

Gujarat Police has finally admitted that it killed more Muslims than Hindus in itsostensible attempts to stop what was clearly targeted Hindu violence against Mus-lims. Of the 184 people who died in police firing during the post-Godhra violence,104 were Muslims, says a report drafted by Gujarat Police. This statistic substantiatesthe allegation of riot victims from virtually every part of the state that not only didthe local police not do anything to stop the Hindu mobs; they actually turned theirguns on the helpless Muslim victims.

At some places in the state though, this trend -of more Muslims falling to police bulletsthan Hindus -was reversed. In both Bhavnagar and Banaskantha districts, five Hindusdied in police firing on rioters. No Muslim was killed in Banaskantha, only one died inBhavnagar. Superintendents of police of both districts were removed from their posts.The numbers of Muslim and Hindu deaths in police firing, despite having beencomputed by the Gujarat government, have so far not been released. Coming out withthe truth would only inflame the situation, it was feared.

As many as 218 persons died, more than 1,000 were injured and property valued atabout Rs. 417 crore destroyed between April-June this year, in the sporadic incidents ofcommunal violence in Gujarat which followed the Godhra train carnage, according to areported statement made by union minister of state for home, ID Swami, in Parliament.

November 11/12, Mehsana, Kheda, Ahmedabad: At least six people were killedand several injured when violence broke out in Dasaj, Mehsana. A man was killedwhen a mob attacked the bus in which he was travelling on Mahudha-Dakod Road.Earlier in the day, two persons were stabbed to death at Mahudha village in Khedadistrict of central Gujarat.

Late into the night of November 12, Dasaj and surrounding villages of Mehrwada,Jaska and Kohda, which have barely 20-22 Muslim families each living within themafter the carnage, were held to ransom by rampaging mobs egged on by minister fortransport, Narayan Laloo Patel. Later, two people were killed after wild rumours werespread about a “Muslim” attack on revellers at Gogh Maharaj temple in Dasaj. Col-lector Amrut S Patel of Mehsana is a close relative of the aforementioned minister.Maharaj Amardas Bapu of Virpur Math, Palanpur, was heard making provocativespeeches to incite the mobs to violence.

A crude bomb explosion claimed the life of a shopkeeper in Danilimda area ofAhmedabad.

November 8, Ahmedabad: Tension reigned in the Gomtipur, Shahpur andDamilimda areas of Ahmedabad after 16 persons were injured in Jamalpur. The po-lice arrested a significant number of persons from both the Hindu and Muslim com-munities. The fragile state of affairs was evident in the atmosphere prevalent in thetown when an altercation began over a food bill at a roadside, eating joint in theRaikhad area and blew out of proportion to reach Jamalpur. In the ensuing violence,six people were seriously injured and five shops ransacked and set ablaze near JamalpurDarwaza before additional police and paramilitary forces brought the situation undercontrol. Just the day before (November 7), a private bus ran over 14-year-old PankajAmbalal Dabhi in Shahpur. Public outrage against the bus driver transformed intocommunal violence in different parts of the city, police said.

November 5, Ahmedabad: Police had to lob tear gas shells to quell stone peltingmobs as members of both communities fought a pitched battle after a quarrel. Atleast three persons were injured and half-a-dozen two-wheelers and three-wheelerswere set on fire by the mob at Gomtipur near Sarangpur bridge in the western part ofthe city. Trouble erupted when a local Hindu youth, who was apparently drunk, wentto the Muslim owner of a cycle-repair shop to rent a cycle. Since the youth owed thecycle-shop owner some money, the owner refused and asked him to first repay thedebt. A heated argument ensued and both came to blows. The Hindu youth suffereda minor injury on his elbow, police said.

The youth’s family, who lived nearby, raised an alarm. Within minutes, people fromboth communities began pelting stones at each other. Three persons were injured inthe 25-minute exchange. Once they reached the spot, police failed to control the mobfrenzy. The rioting continued and people set fire to five two-wheelers and three-wheel-ers and a bakery in the presence of the police, a local youth, Anwarbhai Ansari, said.Finally, police brought the situation under control after lobbing 24 tear gas shells.More than 10 persons from both communities were rounded up.

October 21, Dangs, South Gujarat: Five tribal children, boarders at a school runby the Navjyot Social Service Society, were threatened and told “to decide whetherthey want to live as Hindus or die as Christians.” A senior BJP minister in the NarendraModi government, Karsan Patel, warned Christians in the sensitive Dangs area “to behave with restraint.” The minister was camping in Dangs to ensure that the RamKatha in his constituency was a success and “wants Christians to cooperate or face theconsequences.” Patel is, ironically, the state minister handling the welfare of the so-cially and economically backward classes. Christian priests and nuns claimed that“tension was in the air” and that the minister had behaved extremely rudely at the endof the meeting. “He told us, ‘You tried to rake up Dangs and got international atten-tion. Did Godhra ever happen in Dangs? Has a single Christian died? Why do youpeople make a mountain of a molehill? And don’t dare talk to the English media,’”the priests and nuns said. The minister, however, denied this.

October 9, Chuda, Surendranagar: Around 30 people were injured in a groupclash between Harijan and Satwara communities at Chuda in Surendranagar district.The groups attacked each other with sharp weapons and resorted to stone throwingand ransacking of shops. According to DSP, R Jotangiya, the trouble started over apetty fight between children of the two communities, which later intensified with theelders joining in. According to sources, about 14 people were detained for interroga-tion and most of them belonged to the Harijan community.

September 20, Vadodara, Ahmedabad: The death toll in two days’ violence inVadodara rose to four with one more person succumbing to stab injuries in hospital.Of the four killed, two persons died in police firing. One person was stabbed to deathand another stoned. Trouble started during the Ganesh Visarjan ceremony and clasheswere reported from Fatehpura, Yuktepura, Machchipith and Raopura. Violence con-tinued throughout the night.

Meanwhile, in Ahmedabad, 13 persons, including 11 policemen, were injured afterclashes between Shiv Sena and Congress workers on September 19, over the desecra-tion of a Ganesh idol. Shiv Sena and Congress workers hurled stones and soda bottlesat each other and Ganesh processions were held up for more than three hours, DSPNatha Ghule said. Balu Borate, a Congress leader, has lodged a complaint lodged atTopkhana police station against Shiv Sena MLA Anil Rathod and seven others. Bo-rate alleged that the clashes started after Sena cadres threw stones and damaged theGanesh statue at Neelkamal Mandal. Police registered a case of rioting against Rathod.Shiv Sena MLAs alleged that police had a nexus with the Congress and said his partyworkers were incapable of desecrating the statue, as they were “real Hindus”.

July 19, Viramgam, Ahmedabad: At least one person was killed and 12 injuredwhen police opened fire to control communal violence at Viramgam town, in Ahmedabadrural district. At least eight of the injured sustained bullet wounds. Curfew was imposedin Viramgam, near Ahmedabad, when police fired bullets to disperse clashing groupsafter lobbing of tear gas shells failed to bring the situation under control.

July 18, Panchmahal: Two explosions, believed to have been caused by crudedevices, rocked the rural areas of Panchmahal district, leaving two persons dead andat least a dozen injured, some of whom lost their eyes. According to superintendentof police Narsinh Komar, the first explosion occurred in Mehlol village, 15 km from Godhra town, at around 12.15 p.m., when a scooter parked in the village explodedand went up in flames. There were, however, no casualties.

The second explosion took place in the Suthar Falia of Dailol town, in which twopeople were killed. The dead were identified as Hiren Suthar and Jagdish Rathod.

July 16, Ahmedabad: The arrest of the ‘mahant’ of the Saryudasji temple,Shivramdasji Ramanandi, here on the eve of the Jagannath rath yatra, for allegedlypossessing nine country-made pistols was described by a section of the sadhus andsants as a “conspiracy”. They threatened to “take to the streets” if suitable action wasnot taken against the police officials responsible.Taking up cudgels on behalf of the ‘mahant’ was his ‘guru’ and president of theRamjanmabhoomi Nyas, Ramchandra Paramhans, who rushed here from Ayodhya.He presided over a meeting attended by 500 sadhus and sants from all over the state.The meeting adopted a resolution to launch an agitation if the government failed todo “justice” to the ‘mahant’. The agitation would be extended all over the country insupport of the demand for suspension of the two police officials, who they said, wereresponsible for hatching a “conspiracy” against the ‘mahant’.

June 10, Ahmedabad: Violence that began in Juhapura area on the afternoonof June 9 (after the arrest of two alleged bootleggers involved in the recent riots),continued, leaving two dead and five injured. A 75-year-old autorickshaw driverwas attacked by unidentified men with sharp-edged weapons, near Guptanagar.He died in hospital later. A 15-year-old boy, who lived in the Sama Park societyin Juhapura, also died in police firing. A 26-year-old youth was also injured inpolice firing.

At about 11 a.m., mobs set on fire 12 houses and two shops in the Aravali societyand Al Hamza society near Guptanagar slum colony that borders Juhapura. Therewas heavy brick-batting in the area and the mobs targeted police. Three persons,including one inspector, were injured. Vejalpur police arrested 17 persons in connec-tion with the violence.

June 7, Valol: Residents of this village were shocked when they woke up to thesight of a burning Tata Indica car with two persons inside. Villagers first spotted theburning white car at around 3.15 a.m. and one of them immediately called the policeand fire brigade. Police reached the spot 15 minutes later and found two charredbodies inside the car. Police had still to identify the two persons and find out if thevictims were burnt along with the car or their bodies were burnt after they were killed.Nothing was left of the car except for its soot-covered seat frames. The bodies werefound on the rear seats, their trunk and lower limbs reduced to ashes and the upperpart charred beyond recognition.

June 3, Bhavnagar: Police fired at least ten rounds and burst tear gas shells to dispersemobs indulging in arson and stone pelting in the Prabhutalav area of Bhavnagar city.However, no one was injured in the police action. Mobs belonging to two communitiesbegan pelting stones following a power failure in the area and also set a house on fire.

June 1, Vadodara: A Maulvi was stabbed in the city of Vadodara.May 30, Kadi, Mehsana: At least two persons were killed and another injured asfresh violence erupted in Kadi taluka town of Mehsana district, prompting the au-thorities to impose indefinite curfew in the area. A person who was eating by a way-side kiosk on the outskirts of Kadi town was killed and the owner of the kiosk in-jured in a bomb explosion. In a related incident, a bus conductor was burnt alive. Twounidentified persons, who had covered their faces with turbans, came to the kiosk tobuy food, when they hurled the bomb before escaping with the food. The customer,belonging to the majority community, died on the spot, while the kiosk owner, from aminority community, was injured.

As tension mounted in the town, a mob gathered at Kundal village between Kadiand Chhatral Road and intercepted a state transport bus. The irate mob then pulledout the conductor, a Muslim, from the bus, and burnt him alive.

May 29, Ahmedabad: Panic gripped Ahmedabad following a series of bomb blastsaboard three buses. Two live bombs were also found in two other buses and weredefused. Eleven persons, seven of them women, were injured in the three explosionsthat went off almost simultaneously on three routes between 10 and 10.15 a.m., thepeak traffic hour. Three of the injured, including the driver of one of the buses,received critical injuries. Two bomb disposal squad men were injured when one of thebombs went off while being defused. The explosions ripped open the sides of twobuses and the roof of another was blown off and found 500 metres away. Two bombsexploded in the posh Gurukul and Vasna localities while one went off near the busdepot on the Geeta Mandir Road in the old city.

May 15, Rajkot: The city police arrested two persons, including a Junagadh-based Bajrang Dal activist, carrying 99 swords and 200 other sharp weapons, in-cluding knives and daggers, in a jeep. The jeep was detained for checking at GreenLand Chowkdi — the junction of roads connecting Rajkot with Ahmedabad, Morbiand Junagadh. Those arrested were identified as Mansukh Kanji Patel, a Junagadh-based Bajrang Dal activist, and jeep driver Dinesh Hasmukh Vekaria, a resident ofRajkot. Police said that a case of violating the notification prohibiting carrying ofweapons was registered against them.

Police commissioner Upendra Singh said that Patel was a Bajrang Dal ‘SangathanMantri’ of the Joshipura area in Junagadh with 2,000 Bajrang Dal workers under him.Patel worked in the diamond polishing business in Junagadh.

CP Singh said that Patel told police he was taking the weapons to Junagadh fordistribution because they “feared retaliation” and that the Junagadh police had beenalerted. President of the Junagadh unit of Bajrang Dal, Lalit Suvagiya, who is alsojoint secretary of the Gujarat Pradesh Bajrang Dal, disowned Patel, saying that hewas not a member of the Bajrang Dal. But the Bajrang Dal’s Rajkot city unit chief,Chamanbhai Sindhav, admitted that Mansukh was a Bajrang Dal activist. Sindhavsaid that Mansukh had bought the weapons for self-protection.

Rajkot police also raided a yard near the Chotila bus stand and seized anothercache of swords, knives, and guptis packed in gunny-sacks. Police said 170 swords,470 knives, and 457 guptis — worth some Rs 1.87 lakh — were found in the yard ofthe Chauhan brothers. Mansukh Patel, who was arrested in connection with the sei-zure from the jeep, said he had procured the swords from the Chauhans. Two personswere arrested in connection with the Chotila seizure. Police said that Prabhubhai andChannabhai Chauhan had been dealing in swords for the last five years, and wouldsell them to any buyer. Meanwhile, first class judicial magistrate SM Soni rejected thefive-day police remand plea for Mansukh Patel, Bajrang Dal member, arrested byRajkot police for violating the public notification banning carrying of arms.

May 12, Ahmedabad, Vadodara: In the 75 days post-Godhra, Gomtipur, inAhmedabad, was under day curfew for almost 43 days while night curfew was in force foralmost 60 days. In Vadodara, the situation was only slightly better, with areas like Wadibeing under night curfew for 24 days and day curfew for 44 days. The curfew threw upother challenges for people — how to reach office or an examination centre and how toget the daily supplies of milk and vegetables. “While the affluent ones have stored goodsin bulk, the poorer sections are in big trouble,” said Ashraaf Khan Pathan of Juni Bapunagar.

May 7, Ahmedabad: The army was called out in Ahmedabad after a fresh out-break of communal violence left twelve persons dead. A youth was stabbed rightinside the VS Hospital, run by the Congress-controlled Ahmedabad Municipal Cor-poration, in the presence of police. The youth was stabbed when he alighted from anambulance carrying a patient who had been stabbed in Juhapura locality, when someSangh Parivar volunteers were demonstrating against the alleged “partisan attitude” ofthe hospital authorities against Hindu patients.

While three persons each were killed in Kalupur and Vejalpur localities, two werekilled in Juhapura and one each in Jamalpur and Danilimda areas. Perhaps for the firsttime since the violence began, the night remained largely peaceful and most of theviolent incidents took place in broad daylight.

The day began with a stabbing incident in Majoorgam under Kalupur police stationand soon the violence spread to the outskirts of the city. A college instructor wasstabbed to death and then his body set afire in Sarkhej locality.

This incident had its repercussions in the neighbouring Juhapura and Vejalpur lo-calities, where violent mobs came out on the streets and indulged in stone throwingand attacked passers-by. At least three trucks in Sarkhej and Juhapura localities wereset ablaze after their drivers fled.

• A camel cart owner was stabbed to death in Vejalpur, where two others werekilled when police opened fire to disperse the violent mobs. The Juhapura and Vejalpurincidents spread tension in the city with one person was stoned to death near RevdiBazar in Kalupur. At least seven persons, including three policemen, were injured in abomb blast near the Kalupur police station. One of the injured later died in hospital.The charred body of a middle-aged person, believed to have been stabbed to deathand later set afire, was recovered from Jamalpur.
• A lecturer of IIT, Sarkhej, was intercepted by four people while on his way towork and burnt alive. MA Kothawala, (35) was going to work on his two-wheeler. Itwas his beard that gave him away. As he slowed down his scooter, he was stopped byfour people who stabbed him and them burnt him alive.
• A truck driver, unaware of the trouble in Sarkhej, drove straight into a moblying in wait near Juhapura. He was also burnt alive.
• Two daily-wagers cycling to work from Dhor Bazaar were pelted with stonesand then bludgeoned to death.
• Two residents of Parikshitalal Nagar, Behrampura, on their way home wereburnt alive by a mob on May 5.

While mobs attacking entire neighbourhoods was part of the pattern during thefirst phase of violence in Ahmedabad, a new pattern emerged in the incidents thattook place round early May: that of mobs targeting unsuspecting individuals. Policesaid this could be because of the long spell of violence that had deepened the divide.In the incidents of early May, innocent citizens, educated people, were waylaid bymobs and done to death. Ironically, most of these people were either on their way towork or were hurriedly returning home on hearing reports of violence in the city.

May 7, Bhavnagar: Tension gripped Bhavnagar city when groups of people fromboth the Hindu and Muslim communities were involved in stone throwing. However,timely action by the police prevented the situation from escalating further. Accordingto police control room, it all started when a youth, who was drunk, came out on thestreets in the Karchaliya Para area in Bhavnagar with a sword. Police said that thiscreated tension as people from both the communities came out on the streets withswords in their hands. On May 6, a group of people had set a medical shop located inthe Khumbhariya Wada area on fire.

May 7, Vadodara: The JP Road police recovered a crude “bomb” from a footpathon the Old Padra Road. The bomb made from urea, a gelatine stick and detonatorseemed to have been left at the spot to create panic in the area. According to the citypolice, the bomb was recovered following a tip-off. “A parcel with a wick was lyingdeserted on the footpath. As a precautionary measure, the bomb squad was called totackle it,” an officer said. Officials at the J P Road police station said the bomb musthave been placed by some mischief-monger to create panic in the area. “The so-calledbomb was otherwise harmless. It did not contain nails or similar articles to injure aperson,” said JP Road police inspector Kiritsinh Jhala.

May 7, Panchmahal: Shops were set on fire and members of two communitiesclashed at Lunavada town in Panchmahal district, prompting the imposition of in-definite curfew in the area. Following the bomb explosion in a bus which injured 10people on May 6, incidents of stone throwing and arson were reported during the day.Indefinite curfew was clamped on the town.

May 6, Panchmahal: As many as ten people were injured, including three womenand an infant, were injured, five of them seriously, when a country-made bomb exploded in a Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation bus at Lunavada bus stand,nearly 40 km from Godhra. The incident took place at 1200 hrs when the bus, sched-uled for Malvan, was parked at the stand for the 30-odd passengers to board. Five ofthe injured, including the conductor Hirabhai Vanand, were in serious condition andwere shifted to the civil hospital. The incident has spread panic and tension in Lunavadaand surrounding areas. Witnesses stated that the explosion could have occurred in theabandoned baggage of a passenger.

May 6, Ahmedabad: Two youths were stoned to death in the Kagdapith area ofAhmedabad. “The youths were stopped by an armed mob and lynched,” a senior policeofficer said. They were two factory workers, who were proceeding to their workplace oncycles, and then lynched as sporadic incidents of violence continued unabated in thestate. With this the death toll in two days of violence has gone up to ten. The incidenttook place around 10 a.m. in the Kagdapith police station area. As the victims wereleaving their houses on cycle, they were surrounded by an irate mob, which resorted toheavy stone pelting. “They bled to death on the spot,” the police said.

Police burst several tear gas shells to disperse a crowd near a mosque in Mirzapurarea where two crude bombs exploded while a prayer session was on, setting offtension in the locality. The bombs exploded on the road outside the mosque. No onewas injured in the blast. Indefinite curfew, meanwhile, remained in force at Danilimdaand Shahpur, two of the worst affected localities of Ahmedabad.

May 5, Ahmedabad: After three days of calm, tension gripped the city ofAhmedabad when rioters went on the rampage in Shahpur, Madhavpura and Danilimdaareas, forcing the police to open fire. Seven people were killed.

According to police, the body of a person with stab wounds was dumped outsidethe RSS headquarters by miscreants who came in a Maruti car around midnight.

May 3, Jamnagar: Tension mounted in Varvala village of Dwarka taluka, Jamnagardistrict, after miscreants desecrated temples in the village. Heavy police deploymentwas made in the area soon after that, to prevent any untoward incident as villagersobserved a bandh to voice their protest.

May 2, Bharuch: Tension mounted in Bharuch district after some assailants ridinga motorcycle shot at a BJP worker in Ankleshwar town. Sources in the Ankleshwarcity police said that the victim, Ganesh Agrawal, who was an active worker of theBJP and owns a provision store, was shot at by unidentified assailants. Sources saidthat Agrawal had earlier been named as an accused in two cases of rioting in theaftermath of the Godhra carnage.

April 16, Ahmedabad: Even 48 hours after communal incidents began, large partsof Ahmedabad still remained under curfew.

April 15, Ahmedabad: Two persons were shot dead by the police at Dariapur. The policeof the Dariapur police station assisted a mob pelting stones at minority pockets in the area.A local resident, Ayub Khan Pathan, had his head blown off when he simply stepped out to take a snapshot and get photographic evidence of police misdemeanours. The violencecontinued between Delhi Darwaza and Shahibag (where incidentally the commissioner ofpolice’s headquarters are located) and the targets were – Kanikhad Muslim Mohalla (where80 households live) and Sajjan Jamadar Mohalla (where 200-250 families live).There were two terror attacks, by mobs of 15-20 and 100-200 respectively, Std.VIII and IX students belonging to the minority community, who were giving examina-tions in two separate examination centres at Delhi Darwaza.

April 5, Vadodara: In a shocking example of violence by armed mobs roaming thestreets of Gujarat, a convoy of five vehicles carrying families from Chhotaudaipur toVadodara under police escort was attacked by a mob en route, which set all the ve-hicles on fire. At least three persons suffered serious burn injuries and a policeman,who was attacked with sharp weapons, was also grievously hurt. The families, whohad been stuck in an unsafe area for six days, were being shifted to Vadodara by thepolice in three trucks, a tempo and a rickshaw.

April 4, Umreth, Anand district, Kutch: Two persons were killed and two injuredin police firing in Umreth town of Anand district, where rioting mobs burnt down about10 shops. Police fired 20 rounds and imposed indefinite curfew in the afternoon.

• Kutch, which had been peaceful so far, also witnessed violence. Indefinitecurfew was clamped in Anjar after mobs damaged three places of worship.

April 3, Ahmedabad: Police, under PI SD Sharma, in the presence of Mr. Parmarof the Ahmedabad collectorate, led a violent attack on the 750 refugees of the SuleimanRoza Relief Camp (behind Nutan Mills), Saraspur and actually shot two persons,Pirujbhai Mohammad Sheikh (30) and Khatoonbi Sharfuddin Saiyed (45). The camp,which had been home to 750 displaced persons over the past 40 days, was thus forc-ibly wound up.

29 innocents were shot at by the RAF and SRP forces. Advocate Nizam was shotdead by the police inside his home and Dr. Ishaq Sheikh, vice-president of the AlAmeen Garib Niwas Hospital, was pulled out of his ambulance by the Ahmedabadpolice, SRP and RAF personnel and brutally beaten up. Police inspectors Modi andParmar were present while this happened and did nothing to stop the assault. Anotherperson shot dead in police firing, Mohammad Yunus Akbarbhai, hailed from SakharGhanchi Ki Chawl. The policemen named by eyewitnesses are NA Modi (PSI D Staff),NR Jadhav, senior police inspector and DCP Sawani.

April 3, Abasna, Ahmedabad rural: Five members of a Muslim family wereburnt to death late at night in Abasna village. Three houses were burnt down and fivemembers of the same family, including a baby girl, were hacked to death and then setablaze by an unruly mob of around 15-20 persons at about 12.30 am. The Kadipolice reached the spot at 2.30 a.m.

In another incident of violence in Ahmedabad, in broad daylight and in the heart ofthis city, 34-year-old Muhammad Riyaz Qureshi was hacked to death near the Shahpurpolice post, apparently because he was married to a Hindu. There was heavy police deployment in the area but the policemen saw nothing, heard nothing and did nothing.April 2, Ahmedabad: In the course of the past week, mobs set fire to over 50Ahmedabad houses whose residents wait in relief camps. The police in the city ofAhmedabad just did not stop them. They said that fire spreads too fast and that theywere short of staff. Fifty houses were set on fire at Behrampura in the Danilimda area;they had been vacated by fleeing residents on February 28. About 500 yards away arethe Behrampura police outpost and an additional police picket but that didn’t helpmuch when the mob got to work. Homes in Rajpur, Gomtipur, Ramol, Syedwadi,Vatwa and Madhavpura were gutted. A mob of not less than 10-15,000 attackedhomes at Vejalpur and Juhapura.

April 2, Cambay, Petlad, Kadi, Mehsana: Three persons were killed in policefiring all over Gujarat. At least one person was killed in Cambay and Petlad towns inKaira area in police firing and one was stabbed to death in Kadi town in Mehsanadistrict, as violence re-erupted in the curfew-bound towns late at night. At least threepersons were killed in Cambay and Petlad in police firing earlier in the day to controlmob violence. A mob set on fire at least eight houses at Adundara village near Kadi inMehsana district even as curfew continued in Kadi town.

• Disturbances spread to newer areas such as Narsanda, Boriyavi, Chaklasi andother small towns and villages in central and north Gujarat where mobs set fire tohouses and shops belonging to a minority community and tried to damage some placesof worship.

March 31, Ahmedabad: About 60 houses in two chawls on Danilimda Road inBehrampura were gutted following arson resorted to by residents of Pathani Ni Chaliand Ghasiram Chali after a minor incident of stone throwing between two groups. Po-lice fired about 31 rounds and 156 tear gas shells in the area to control the situation.

March 30, Ahmedabad: A 25,000 strong mob gathered at CTM Amraiwadi, atthe junction of Vatwa and Jantanagar Ramol and Ansaribagh and tried to attackGomtipur, Jhumli Chawl, Najor Road, Vora Chal and Sukhram Road. For residents,the terror continued late into the night.

March 29, Ahmedabad: Two Kashmiris were allegedly burnt alive by rioters dur-ing communal clashes in Ahmedabad. They were identified as Sareer Ahmad of Gohan-Kokernag and Isfaq Ahmad of Vesu-Qazigund. Reports said the former was a truckdriver while the latter a cleaner. They were on their way from Kashmir to Ahmedabadin their vehicle, loaded with Kashmiri apples. As the truck entered Ahmedabad, amob stopped it. When the miscreants discovered that the driver and the cleaner wereKashmiris, they severely thrashed the duo. Their truck was set ablaze and subse-quently the two were burnt alive.

March 29, Kadi, Mehsana: The 200 residents at the Kadi Relief camp near Kalolwere attacked by a large mob at midnight.

March 26, Godhra: A month after the Godhra tragedy, things had still not re-turned to normal in Godhra city. Every day, violence breaks out in new areas. There was trouble in Khadia and Ramol areas and two incidents of stabbing were reportedfrom Ranip and Shaherkotda areas.

March 24, Rajkot: An 18-year-old student, who was on his way to write hisHSC examination, was stabbed by two unidentified assailants, leading to ten-sion in the communally sensitive Dhoraji area. The student, Ashok LakhabhaiAhir, was first taken to Junagadh and later shifted to Rajkot. Doctors said hiscondition was serious.

March 24, Ahmedabad: A 30-year-old woman was stripped in public andstabbed to death in the Vejalpur area of Ahmedabad as violence continued un-abated in Gujarat. Mumtazbano, whose maiden name was Geeta, before she mar-ried a Muslim, was stopped by miscreants at Vejalpur when she was going outwith her husband on a scooter. She was stripped and stabbed to death. Her husbandwas admitted to the VS Hospital with serious knife injuries.

March 24, Ahmedabad: The Revdi Bazaar in Panchkuva area of Ahmedabadwas transformed into a raging inferno when manic rioters set shops afire. The mar-ketplace, which houses wholesale cloth shops, erupted into flames which took theAhmedabad Fire Brigade more than five hours to control. Though no casualtieswere reported, local shopkeepers said the damage could well cross Rs. 15 crore.

• Fresh violence erupted in Bhavnagar, Jambusar (Bharuch district) and Prantij(Sabarkantha district) towns and indefinite curfew was imposed there.

March 22, Vadodara, Ahmedabad: Curfew was again imposed in six police sta-tion areas of Vadodara as three people were killed when violence flared up in the city.A 35-year-old man, reportedly a tailor, was found with his throat slit near the LalAkhada in the Fatehpura area of Vadodara. The second case of stabbing was re-ported in the Dandia Bazar area of the city. The person, who ran an English class atApsara Apartments, was attacked at his office in the afternoon.

• In Ahmedabad, one person was killed and three others injured in stabbingincidents in the Kagdapith and Gomtipur areas.
• In Ahmedabad, Ghanibhai, who cookedfood for the 7,000 residents of the Shah-e-Alam Relief Camp, was brutally killed byyouths from just outside the ghetto area, where he had gone to buy a basket used toclean rice.
• Incidents of violence and arson were reported from some areas of north Gujarat.

March 21, Ahmedabad, Himmatnagar: Six persons were killed in renewedviolence in Ahmedabad. Five persons were killed in police firing at Kalupur,(Usman Ghani Memon, Arif Mansoori, Fakir Aakha Ali Shaikh, Mohammad Aslam,Mani), while one person was stabbed to death in sporadic incidents of violence inthe Dariapur, Karanj and Shahpur areas. Vatwa continued to remain under thegrip of tension after the arson at Nava Chunaravas on March 20, when two per-sons were killed in police firing.

• In Himmatnagar town, one shop was set ablaze in the Motipura area whencurfew was relaxed for women and children between noon and 6 p.m.

March 20, Ahmedabad, Himmatnagar: At least two people were killed in po-lice firing in the Vatwa area of Ahmedabad and indefinite curfew was clamped inHimmatnagar town in Sabarkantha district.

• Mobs went on the rampage in Vatwa, torching several hutments and cabins byfiring petrol bombs before the police moved in and restored order. uViolence spread in Himmatnagar town in Sabarkantha district, after the disappearance of a boy, sparked violence.

March 18, Bharuch: Four persons, including two belonging to the minoritycommunity, were killed when police opened fire to disperse mobs in Bharuch andSabarkantha districts as fresh bouts of communal violence hit parts of Gujarat.Two persons were killed and as many seriously injured when police fired on astone pelting mob in the sensitive Undai-Haji Khana locality of Bharuch, whichwas rocked by a fresh spell of violence since March 17, when two persons werestabbed to death. With this, the death toll in the latest spell of violence in thetown went up to four.

March 17, Ahmedabad: Even 17 days after the Godhra carnage, Ahmedabad hadnot calmed down. Incidents of arson, rioting and loot were reported from the Danilimdaand Dudheshwar areas. One person died in police firing while three others, includinga Home Guard of state civil defence, sustained serious stab wounds in Danilimda.Around 2 p.m., a 1,000 strong mob went on the rampage and set fire to two textile-dye manufacturing units in Danilimda. Prior to this, the mob also damaged threeshops and set fire to four vehicles.